


To See A Soul

by Miss_Markers



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Blind!Reader, F/F, F/M, Female Reader, I'm Sorry, M/M, Not Beta Read, Reader Is Not Frisk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-10-23 20:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10727100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Markers/pseuds/Miss_Markers
Summary: You're a blind office worker who gets roped into going out to a karaoke bar with some friends from the office. When there you meet some cool monsters and the next day you find out that a couple of skeletons are moving into the apartment above yours. Eventually some shit happens and there's plot and shit but I'm really bad at coming up with summaries. (I'll try to work on this guys, sorry!)





	1. You Make Some You Lose Some

You try not to groan as your fingers run along the Braille Terminal, reading that the meeting has been changed to Monday, bright and early. As the braille rearranges under your fingertips you discover that your boss will be out of town the rest of the weekend, which is why the meeting has been changed. Again. You honestly don’t really mind that the meeting keeps changing, you just wish that your boss would stop taking impromptu vacations with his new girlfriend: it seems like every time there’s something important going on in the marketing world he and his girlfriend of the month just have to get out and travel to Peru or Vancouver or wherever the hell it is he likes to travel to.

Okay, you resign, the constant changing of times and dates really does get under your skin a little. You and your team have been working on this presentation for weeks now and this is the third time Mr. Finnegan’s changed it. That just gave you even more time to pick at the presentation and tweak it and adjust it even though Sydney and the others have already expressed their belief in it being perfect. What can you say, you just can’t sit still until you know for certain, although you do know for a fact that you will constantly be adjusting the phrasing here and there until the moment of the actual meeting.

Sighing, you lean back in your office chair. You hear the _clack-clack-clacking_ of Sydney’s heels steadily approaching you. Her breathing is a little hitched, like she’s frustrated – most likely about the email, she was in the group of recipients after all – and is walking as fast as her excessively irritating heels can carry her. You hear the shuffle and deeper breathing of someone walking with her, and based on the heavy footfalls you assume the person with her is Betty.

“Joanna! There you are,” Sydney announces as she approaches, as if she didn’t know you would still be at your desk then, “Have you gotten the email yet? Mr. Finnegan’s moved the meeting to Monday morning. Oh, I just wish we could hurry up and get it over with already, you know?”

“Yeah, I just finished reading the email before you showed up… I guess there really isn’t any harm in us waiting a little longer,” you say with a frown.

“To be honest I was pissed at first,” she says, her voice lowering a little as she moves papers around on your desk, most likely so she can sit on the edge of it. That’s something she likes to do, ignoring you when you voice your irritation with her sitting on your desk. She seems to think that since you can’t see her doing it that there’s no harm done. You breathe out through your nose, trying to keep your attitude in check while she continues, “But now that I’ve had a chance to calm down I’ve realized just how lucky we are.”

You raise an eyebrow, “Lucky?”

She laughs, “Yes, I said lucky!” You shoot her an incredulous look and she continues, “Look, Jo, since we don’t have that presentation tomorrow morning we have no need to come in on a Saturday anymore. So yes, I said lucky. Now we can go out tonight and not have to get up super early in the morning!”

With a groan you take off your glasses and pinch the bridge of your nose. Yes, now you can sleep in tomorrow morning, but now you also no longer have an excuse to get out of “going out with the girls”.

“You make it seem like that’s such a bad thing,” Sydney giggles.

You roll your eyes and slip your glasses back on, cocking your head to the side before taking a deep breath and saying, “So… what’s the plan tonight then?”

Sydney lets out a squeal and there’s a slight intake of breath indicating she’s about to start speaking in excitement about you finally agreeing on going out, but there’s a quiet vibration from Sydney’s phone. You hear her fingers typing away in response to whatever text she’s just gotten. With her momentarily busy Betty finally speaks up, “A new bar opened up downtown with a karaoke setup,” she says, excitement causing her voice to be higher than her professional demeanor typically allows, “A group of ten of us – including you – are planning on meeting up there around seven. It’s going to be so much fun, just drinking and making fools of ourselves with karaoke while we drunkenly sing terrible covers of our favorite songs. It’s been so long since you’ve come out with us, Joanna, I’m so excited you finally can! Oh, do you need someone to pick you up?”

“I’ll give her a ride,” Sydney says distractedly before you can say otherwise, and just like that you’ve been roped into going to a karaoke bar with a group of your colleagues. You love going to bars and drinking and just unwinding after a hard day, just not with this particular group of people. They’ve been trying to get you out with them for weeks now and every time they’ve asked you’ve answered with some bullshit excuse to get them to back off a little just long enough for you to make a daring escape. Now, though, you are trapped and you know that if you try to come up with something it will go on deaf ears.

“Who all’s going?” you ask them.

“Well,” Betty began happily, “There’s the three of us, and then there’s Kara, Michaela, Selena, Mackenzie, Riley, Christie, and her girlfriend Jenna. There’s a chance that some of the guys might show up too, but it will at least start out with just us girls! It will be so much fun, you’re gonna love it.”

“You said tonight at seven? What time is it now?” you find yourself asking as you reach around on your desk and frown when your hand brushes against Sydney’s thigh. You were looking for the papers for the presentation and you had a sinking suspicion that the papers that Sydney had moved were just the papers you were searching for. “Come on, Syd, I’ve told you a hundred times that there’s a specific place for everything on my desk so I don’t have to feel around for things,” you grumble, leaning back in your chair with a huff.

“It’s ten ‘til four, and don’t think that just because the meeting’s been moved back that you get to mess with the presentation again,” Sydney says cheerily, hopping off of your desk. You hear papers rustling as she moves and you reach towards the sound but Sydney tuts at you, “I’m taking these to my desk, you’ll get them back on Monday before the presentation. I’ll be at your place at six thirty to pick you up, okay?” and before you can complain or even utter the word “fine” she’s walking away.

“See you tonight, Joanna!” Betty exclaims as she follows Sydney.

You sigh, turning off your Braille Terminal and slipping on your jacket. This is going to be a long night so you’re ready to go ahead and leave work to get your last precious moments alone and enjoy them while they last. You feel around on your desk to make sure that Sydney hadn’t moved anything else when she sat down and, feeling satisfied, you grab your cane and head to the elevators, reaching out once you get within three steps to press the down button. As you wait you pull out your iPhone and use it to order a cab to come pick you up and take you home. Once you’re actually in the elevator you feel yourself already relaxing, ignoring that you aren’t necessarily thrilled at the idea of spending your night hanging out with your coworkers and instead choosing to focus on your excitement to actually go out for a few drinks, company be damned. You’re so used to just cooking for yourself and having a glass of wine with dinner that the prospect of actually drinking in a bar – a karaoke bar at that – sends a delightful shiver of thrill through you and you find yourself grinning.

It takes about fifteen minutes to get to your apartment and once you’re actually inside you sigh happily with the fact that you have just over two hours to yourself. You use the time wisely, changing into a shirt that you know to be perfect for the bar scene. Pairing it with jeans that fit well, you move on to the makeup. You grab your makeup bag and decide to sit on the counter of your bathroom with your back leaning against the cool surface of the incredibly useless mirror. You blend on your foundation, starting at your nose and working your way out to the rest of your face. From there you grab your mascara, very carefully brushing the applicator over your eyelashes for two coats. You smirk as you remember your first time trying to put mascara on yourself that ended with you getting it on the bridge of your nose because you hadn’t checked where the brush ended. While the mascara is drying you put on a little bit of lip-gloss, deciding that lipstick would be a bit too much; you know that Sydney will argue that lipstick is needed but you don’t really care. Last you decide to put on some eyeliner, a tedious task that you typically avoid but decide that, what the hell, why not? Once you feel that your face (maybe, probably) looks better than normal, you start pulling a brush through your long hair, opting to leave it down for the evening.

After that, you still have maybe an hour to relax, so you decide to listen to some classical music (Chopin, to be exact) while you read your Braille copy of “The Great Gatsby”, one of your favorite books. You’ve read it what feels like hundreds of times now but there’s a special place in your heart for Nick and the rest of the characters and you can’t help but crawl back to reread it every so often. There’s just something about the way Fitzgerald writes that draws you in and you rarely seem capable of putting the book down once you start it.

Today’s one of those days where you’re so engrossed in reading – you’re at the part where Jordan Baker is telling the story of finding Daisy “as drunk as a monkey” just before her bridal dinner and you’re on the metaphorical edge of your seat even though you know the rest of the story – that you don’t hear when the elevator opens outside of your apartment and the familiar _clack-clack-clacking_ of Sydney’s heels draws closer to your front door until she’s knocking. You hear her jiggle the doorknob (as if you would ever just leave your door unlocked) and sigh exasperatedly as if you were the one inconveniencing her. You let out a sigh of your own and put your book on the table in front of you before walking over to the door and opening it in a rush. You can practically hear her looking you up and down, making sure that you look good but not too good – don’t want to upstage Queen Sydney, right – and that you’re worthy of being seen in public with her. Whatever she sees must be good enough because she says, “Ready to go?” rather than stepping in and taking care of what she would consider a disaster. You grab your cane off of the small table next to your door and smile as you slip into your Vans but you can feel that it comes out more of a grimace.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” you joke, your mind trying to focus on more than the fact that you suddenly really don’t want to leave your story, especially for people that you hardly enjoy spending any time with. It isn’t that the people you work with are inherently bad; it’s just that they’re extremely narrow-minded. They’re the sort of people that judge based off of stupid things, like disabilities or skin color. Once the barrier on Mount Ebbot went down and monsters emerged with the intent of coexisting the narrow-minded people all but moved on from the race thing because _holy shit we really are all the same so long as we’re human_ and they just moved on to be racist to monsters instead. They still treat people that are different than them similarly to how they did before but with the new “threat” of monsters things have calmed down drastically. Of course, there are people who still act the same as they always have, but those people are few and far between nowadays

That’s part of the reason you don’t mind monsters: you can relate. You’re the only person in your office that isn’t completely able-bodied, and that had been an effort to accomplish to be honest; they just didn’t want to hire someone that might possibly have any issues getting around or whatever other bullshit excuse they’d had when they first told you that you didn’t get the job. It took all you had to get them to even think about reconsidering and by that time you were so exhausted that you just threatened to sue them for ADA compliance or whatever else you could come up with since they’d told you flat out that the only reason you weren’t hired was because you were blind. They hired you on almost immediately and at first they seemed to be trying to throw you off, to overwork you or to make things increasingly difficult just so you would quit, throw in the towel, but you surprised them by taking everything head on and actually doing your damn job. You managed to show them that you were a force to be reckoned with and since then you’d become one of the top members of the marketing team for the company. People tended to be surprised when they found out that you were blind but that was just something that you were proud of, that you had proved yourself to be so much more than just the “blind girl” in the office.

Considering how hard it was for the company to hire you it wasn’t much of a surprise that there weren’t any monsters working there. Still, just because it wasn’t a surprise didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying and just… wrong. You knew that at least one monster had applied because the gossiping network spread through the building until everyone knew that a bunny woman had handed in an application. After that everyone had waited with bated breath until the job had been given to someone else – human of course. You overheard one of the hiring managers talking about how he wished they’d just hired the monster because apparently she was better suited for the job than the man they’d given it to instead, but he wasn’t the one who signed on for the new hires so it wasn’t completely up to him. He was just one man on the team, after all.

It surprised you that the company was being prejudiced against monster hires, not because you were expecting humans to be more open to new things (ha) but because Mr. Finnegan is a known monster supporter. His current girlfriend is actually a monster named Bratty. Or was it Catty…? You can’t remember. He talked about her as if she were the woman of his dreams. Why would he be okay with monsters enough to date one but not enough to hire one? Somewhere in your mind you know that Finnegan isn’t completely in control of that – just because he’s the boss doesn’t mean _everything_ he says goes – but it still rubs you the wrong way. It’s just wrong in general. Monsters are the same as humans in most every aspect, you’ve found. Maybe it’s just because you can’t see the obvious differences but that’s all physical stuff anyway, right? What you deal with is the person themselves, listening to them like you would anyone else. Occasionally when you go to shake a hand you’ll shake a paw or a claw or the one time you bumped into someone and you felt incredibly soft fur, but none of that matters to you. When you go to the grocery store there’s a monster there named Burgerpants that’s become a pretty good friend that helps you pick out all of the things you need and then rings you up afterwards. He told you immediately the first time you went into the store and asked for assistance in shopping that he was a monster and that if you would prefer a human assistant he would gladly ask someone else to come help, but you shook your head politely and took his arm at the elbow and told him what all you needed and talked to him as if he were a normal person – because he is. All monsters are. The only differences are the physical things.

“You’re not going to wear your glasses are you?” Sydney asks with disdain, drawing you from your head and back into the present where your shoes are now on and you’re fiddling with your cane and putting your purse on your shoulder in the same fluid movement.

You roll your eyes, a habit carried over from when you could still see, “Not the whole night, no, but on the way there definitely.”

“But you did your make-up and everything, I just don’t understand why you want to wear them.”

“Sydney,” you speak slowly, annunciating her name clearly to help give the impression that the next words are to be taken as seriously as possible, “You don’t understand; because you are not me. The glasses help protect my eyes from things like the wind or if there’s a chance that something might get into my eyes. So I’m wearing the glasses on the way there and on the way back, but probably not as much when we get to the bar. Now. You already have me coming with you; don’t make me change my mind, because I will shut the door in your face.”

Sydney is silent for a beat, leaving you wondering not for the first time if she might be flipping you off, but then she says, “Alright, whatever, let’s go.”

And just like that you’re in the taxi and listening to Sydney tapping at her phone and chirping away at you about how the girls are all excited for you to be joining them for the evening. They’re all just so sure that this means that you will start going out with them every time they ask and you can’t bring yourself to shoot Sydney down just yet about the idea – you decide to just get through the evening first before and foremost before you so much as think about thinking about the future.

When the taxi eventually stops and you and Sydney get out, you unfold your cane and grab loosely onto her elbow, letting her lead you along the sidewalk. You hear the normal sounds of the city, the seemingly infinite amount of traffic, both vehicles and people being a constant presence, but you also hear loud music that is just getting louder as Sydney and you walk towards the entrance of the bar. The smells of the city are being drowned out by the scent of sweat, bar food, and perfume that the place is emitting, and you can’t help but smile at the pleasant shiver that runs down your spine. Sydney stops you from moving any further and says, “The girls are here,” but as soon as she says it the women you’re both meeting with are swarming you, saying how excited they are that you’re out with them. You go from that pleasant, warm feeling to a cold nervousness but you try not to let it show when you tell them that you just want to get into the bar and get a drink.

“Uh oh, ladies,” you hear Jenna say, silencing everyone’s chatter almost instantly, “Look at that.”

You roll your eyes behind your glasses and wait while everyone else looks at whatever it was Jenna wanted them to look at. When it seems like no one is going to say anything you finally ask, “What?”

“Oh, right, sorry Jo,” Betsy says, grabbing your shoulder and leaning in closer as she says it. You hate when people do that but you don’t really want to complain that much; Betsy’s the one person in the group that you don’t mind as much as everyone else, you just hate that she lets everyone else walk all over her. If that makes you a hypocrite then you aren’t going to mention it. She lowers her voice and breathily whispers, “There’s a group of monsters in there.”

You take that back: maybe you just don’t like a single person in this group. “And? Why aren’t we in there yet?” you ask in response, knowing it isn’t the reaction they were hoping for.

“Well,” someone else, Selena you realize once you place the nasally voice, starts, but Sydney cuts her off.

“No, Joanna’s right,” she says, and you can hear the smile in her voice. She doesn’t sound… happy though. She sounds like she’s being vindictive somehow. She loops her arm around yours and giggles, “Let’s go in there and have some fun!”

With some mumbles of discomfort from a few of the women in the group, you all make your way inside. You’re hesitant just based off of the way Sydney is acting, but as soon as you take a seat at the table and you fold up your cane and remove your glasses you allow yourself to breathe a little easier. There’s someone singing a cover of Britney Spears’ _Toxic_ and while it’s terrible it’s so, so beautiful in the way that only someone really drunk can pull off. You find yourself clapping and laughing with everyone else when the man on stage is finished and once you tell the server your drink order – Long Island Iced Tea – you start to think, hey, maybe tonight won’t be so bad.

If only that was the case.

“I DEDICATE THIS SONG TO MY WONDERFUL FRIENDS!” the next karaoke singer yells into the microphone with so much enthusiasm that you can’t help but be excited for him and his wonderful friends. You feel your smile widening, especially when he says, “I DO NOT KNOW ANY OF THESE SONGS BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL CHOOSE ONE AT RANDOM AND JUST SING ALONG WITH THE MUSIC! PREPARE TO BE ASTOUNDED BY MY GREAT SINGING!”

You go to clap for him but it isn’t until Sydney grabs your wrists that you realize only a small amount of people are clapping and cheering, your group definitely not being one of them. You yank your hands from her grip and shoot a glare in her direction, “What the fuck, Sydney?” you hiss as the first few bars of Cyndi Lauper’s _Girls Just Want to Have Fun_ begins to play.

“Jo, we weren’t clapping,” Sydney says, as if that’s enough to get you to understand her reasoning for grabbing you and forcing you not to clap for that enthusiastic karaoke singer.

“Yeah, well, I was,” you practically growl, “don’t fucking grab me like that again.”

You hear Sydney’s exasperated sigh, the same sort of sigh one might give for when they’re dealing with an angry toddler rather than an equal. “Joanna, you’re being ridiculous. He’s a monster, okay? He’s literally a freakishly tall skeleton.”

You groan and roll your eyes, “Oh my _god_ , are you fucking serious right now? You didn’t clap because he’s a monster? You realize how racist that is, right?”

“Joanna, you’re being ridiculous.”

“ _Me_?” you feel like your brain is short-circuiting. She thinks the ridiculous one is _you_? You hear a woman shouting, “Yeah! That’s my FRIEND, you PUNKS!” as the enthusiastic – skeleton? She said skeleton, you remind yourself – on stage hits a high note that may or may not have been necessary or good, to be honest, but it’s definitely sincere. You gesture in the direction of the stage, “Do you hear that? He sounds so happy, Sydney, and you expect me to keep from clapping and feeling happy for him because he’s not human?”

“It’s creepy,” Sydney says, and you hear the rest of your group agreeing with her.

“You’re all being really terrible right now,” you point out, crossing your arms and leaning back in your chair. You really want to leave but you want to at least wait until the skeleton monster on stage is finished with his extremely enthusiastic rendition of the Cyndi Lauper song.

“Joanna, can I talk to you alone for a minute?” Sydney asks and you hear her chair scrape from the table as she stands. You unfold your cane and, even though you hate it, you grab her elbow so she can lead you away from the group that is already talking about you like you’re the strangest, most awful person in the room. Sydney leads you to the bar and you feel the edge of it to make sure that there isn’t any sort of substance that might get on you before you lean against it on your left elbow, shaking your head.

“Joanna,” Sydney begins. Her voice has a hard edge to it and you’d be lying if you said it didn’t unnerve you. “You’re getting too worked up over this. It’s making the rest of us uncomfortable.”

You scoff and open your mouth to respond but she cuts you off, “Let me finish,” she demands and you grit your teeth, clenching your right hand tight around your cane. “We invited you out because we know that you don’t really get out, like, ever. You don’t really have very many friends besides me and I’m totally cool with that. What I’m not cool with is you embarrassing me in front of my other friends.” You raise your eyebrows but keep quiet as she trudges on, “I like having you around. Really, I do. But… look, Joanna, this is supposed to be a fun night, you know? And you getting all ‘holier than thou’ on us really isn’t that much fun.”

You can’t help it: you let out a snort of laughter, “ _’Holier than thou_?’ You’re so fucking full of yourself.”

“Jo, come on,” Sydney pleads, “I put up with your bull shit all the time, just drop this so we can have a good night, okay?”

“What bull shit would that be, Sydney?” you find yourself asking even though you already know the answer. “Is it that I’m blind and you have to lead me around when we go anywhere? Is it that everything has to be printed in braille at work for me and you have to deal with the extra filing? Or is it that I call you out on your own racist and prejudice bull and that pisses you off? Because if it’s the latter then at least have the decency to realize you’re being a bitch.”

“Oh for the love of God, Joanna, would you listen to yourself? I’m not being racist; it’s just fucking creepy to have monsters around and singing karaoke and drinking at the same places we do. He’s a fucking skeleton, an honest to God skeleton. Maybe if you could see you would understand what—”

“Did you really just say that to me?” you ask, your voice quiet. Your rage is pumping through your veins and you want nothing more than to punch her in her no doubt perfect teeth but your body is still and you while you can guess how far you would have to reach to punch her you don’t think your body will respond for it. The bar around the two of you is still loud and some new person is on stage singing TLC’s “ _No Scrubs_ ” as if you aren’t having an emotional confrontation right in the middle of the karaoke bar.

“Whatever,” Sydney bites out, “Like that’s such a harsh thing to say to you? I’m so sick of having to be so fucking careful with what I say and what I do and have to make sure you don’t walk into fucking traffic or something. You know what, Joanna? Thanks for ruining our evening. We’re all leaving. You can find your own way back to your place.”

You hear her walk away, back in the direction of the table where your purse and glasses still are. God, you hope she at least isn’t so much of a shitty person that she messes with either of them. Oh, fuck; you also hope that if she does leave them alone that no one else tries to take them. “Fuck,” you breathe through your teeth while your fist clenches around your cane. You take a few deep breaths to try to get your pulse down to a normal level but when you realize that isn’t going to work you whisper, “Fuck,” under your breath repeatedly as you begin to walk back to the table. You’re tapping your cane in front of you to make sure your path is clear and you have to alter your course just a little bit to avoid people and a few tables.

Eventually you make it back to your table, you think, because it’s roughly the same amount of steps back that you took, you’re just not sure where your purse and glasses are. You’re feeling around the table when someone bumps into you from behind and your hand knocks over a glass. “Fuck,” you exclaim, frantically picking the glass back up and setting it back on the table, hoping that whatever spilled didn’t get on your purse and glasses.

“Oh n-no, I’m so s-s-sorry! Here, l-let me help y-you,” the person behind you stutters out with a woman’s voice. Her voice is a little high pitched but has a rasp to it that makes it seem a little deeper than it really is, and she’s very obviously anxious. You hear her scrambling around for napkins, “Is this your p-p-purse?”

“I think so…?” you say quietly, hearing it come out more as a question. She’s silent for a beat, no doubt only just noticing the cane in your hand, but before she can say anything else you say, “Could you please hand it to me so I can check?”

“Of c-course.”

You shift the cane to your left hand and hold out your right one for the purse and when she puts it in your hand yours brushes against a claw. You must have flinched because her breathing immediately speeds up even more and she manages to stutter, “O-oh! I’m s-s-sorry, I s-should have t-t-told you I’m a m-monster, I’m so s-s-sorry!”

You, of course, immediately feel guilty as hell for making her anxiety pick up even more than it already was so you plaster the sweetest smile you can manage, “Hey, no need to apologize. I just wasn’t expecting it is all. You’re fine, promise,” you lean your cane against the table directly in front of you and then run your hands over the purse that you found was most definitely yours. You immediately feel the contents inside of it to make sure everything’s there and sighed with relief, “Thank you so much. I was worried that the people I was with had taken my stuff. Do you see glasses on the table?”

“…Um…” she shifts and you can hear something drag across the floor in her area. You find yourself wondering if she has a tail but you cut that thought off as soon as she says, “There a-are, but… they’re, um… b-b-broken.”

Your eyebrows shoot up and your eyes widen. “Are you serious?” you put your purse on your shoulder and pick up your cane, “Fuck… could you hand them to me please?” She places them in your hand, muttering an apology, and you frown when your hand feels that the lenses are missing. “She popped the lenses out? God, what a…” your voice trails off when you realize how much you’ve been cussing during this meeting and you close your eyes and breathe for a moment, trying to figure out what you should do now. The anxious woman shifts again, that same dragging sound happening as she does so, and you determine that she must have a tail. That or she’s dragging something along behind her. Your heart goes out to the woman: you’d already offended her for flinching at her claw and now you were pissed off and cussing. God, what a terrible first impression, “Uh, thanks. I really appreciate it. I’m Joanna, by the way, but my friends call me Jo,” you hold your hand out to shake hers.

Very timidly she places her clawed hand in yours and you feel that her hand is scaly. “A-alphys,” she responds. “Were you h-here with f-friends?”

You snort, “Yeah, if you could call them that anymore. They ditched me.”

“W-why would t-they…?”

You think about that for a second. You don’t really want to mention that they were being racist to monsters since Alphys is a monster, and you don’t want to make it out to be like you’re some great person just because you called them out on their shit, so you opt to go for a lighter, more humorous recounting of the event, “I guess you could say that my coworkers and I didn’t _see eye to eye_ on something.”

Alphys gasps and chuckles at the same time, “That w-was awful, wow… A p-pun about your b-blindness? That s-sounds like s-something that…” her voice trails off and there’s a slight intake of breath to indicate that she’s about to speak again but there’s another voice instead that announces, “Hey, Alphys, who’s this?”

The corner of your mouth twitches when you recognize the voice, “Oh, hey, you’re the friend of the guy who sang earlier, right?”

“HELL YEAH I AM!” she announces, “He’s the coolest!”

“He really got into his singing,” you say with a smile, attempting to shove your broken glasses into your purse. There’s a gust of air and you get a whiff of… salt water? The scent is so strong that you can almost taste it, but you decide to store that thought away for later.

“I taught him that!” she’s so proud that you can’t help but feel your smile grow even wider than it was before.

You nod in her general direction, “Well, you must be an excellent teacher.”

“H-honey, this is Jo, I j-just met h-h-her…” Alphys mutters out, “Jo, t-this is Undyne, my f-fiancé.”

“Oh, congratulations you two, and nice to meet you, Undyne,” you hold your hand out towards roughly where you heard her from last and when she places her hand in yours you’re expecting not to feel a human hand so you don’t flinch when you feel something different. Although, the webbed fingers and super smooth skin explains the salt-water scent that she exudes.

“Why aren’t you…?” she must make a hand motion because she’s silent for a beat, until Alphys clears her throat.

“Honey, I’ll e-explain later.”

“But—”

“L-later.”

You make a wild guess and assume that Undyne is curious about the fact that you’re blind but you don’t say anything. Instead you just sort of sigh once you go back to thinking about Sydney and your glasses and the fact that you now have to call for a cab and you’re fairly certain that no one ever paid the bill at your table. You feel guilty about that so you ask, “Hey, um, I’m sorry to ask, but could you please flag down a server? Or something? I don’t think they ever paid,” you tap the leg of the table with your cane, although it might have been one of the chairs, “So I really need to take care of that before I go.”

“O-oh! You don’t need to a-apologize,” Alphys said sweetly, “I u-understand. Honey, c-can you p-please…?”

“I’m on it!” Undyne basically shouts and you hear her rush towards the bar. Alphys giggles, and you can’t help but smile again at how sweet these people are.

“HELLO, ALPHYS AND ALPHYS’ HUMAN FRIEND!” the singer from earlier announces as he approaches, and you feel yourself beaming in his direction.

Alphys introduces you to the skeleton monster and when he shakes your hand he does it vigorously. Papyrus, you’re finding out, is intense in all of his endeavors. It’s a little weird shaking the hand of a skeleton, but he’s wearing gloves so you just feel that they’re very… boney underneath. You can’t help but wonder how the bones are staying together.

“I really enjoyed your singing earlier,” you say, refraining from apologizing for not clapping like you’d wanted to. Your mood sours once again once you think about how that all turned out but Papyrus doesn’t seem to notice.

“THANK YOU, HUMAN JO! I LIKE YOUR WEAPON!”

You cock your head to the side, “Weapon…? Oh! My cane?” You hold it up a little bit but don’t hear a response.

You’re about to ask again when Alphys stutters out, “He’s n-nodding, s-s-sorry. Papyrus, Jo c-can’t… she’s… u-um…”

You come to her aide, “I’m blind, which means I can’t see anything. My eyes basically suck at being eyes. So my cane,” you once again hold it up for emphasis, “Is so that I don’t accidentally walk into a wall or into people or something.”

“ARE YOU HURT? DO WE NEED TO TAKE YOU TO THE HUMAN VET? ALPHYS IS A DOCTOR!” Papyrus sounds so worried and concerned for your well being that you can just feel your heart melting for this sweet, innocent person.

You shake your head and laugh a bit, “No, Papyrus, I’m perfectly fine. I’m not in pain, and I’m not dying or anything, okay? I promise. Being blind really is just a disability, more of a nuisance really.”

“ARE YOU CERTAIN?” he asks, grabbing your arms, most likely staring at you intensely. You then find yourself wondering if he has eyeballs to even look at you with or if he just has the eye sockets that somehow act like eyes… now you’re completely distracted and a bit confused. You force yourself off of that train of thought and back to what is currently going on.

“I’m positive,” you smile widely.

“DUDE! Jo! I found the guy we pay to and it’s taken care of!” Undyne shouts when she gets back.

Your eyebrows shoot up and your jaw drops, “Taken… care of? How? Why?”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” she smacks your shoulder, causing you to jump a bit since you weren’t expecting it. She, unfortunately, takes it the wrong way, “I know I look super big and strong and I definitely am but I promise I’m not going to hurt you unless you deserve it!”

“It’s not—” you begin, but Papyrus interrupts.

“UNDYNE, JO CANNOT SEE YOU BECAUSE SHE IS SICK!”

“I’m not—”

“SICK? You punk, why are you at a bar if you’re sick! You’re going to make it worse or spread the sickness to other people! So this is why you weren’t looking at me earlier. Babe! Is this what you were going to talk to me about?”

Alphys groans, “Undyne, she isn’t s-sick. She’s b-b-blind.”

“It really isn’t that big of a deal,” you chime in, laughing a bit nervously. Were there no blind monsters? How did Alphys seem to understand blindness but the other two didn’t? “Also, how and why was the bill taken care of?”

“Huh, I thought you forgot about that,” Undyne mumbles, “Let’s just say if someone happened to overhear part of a pretty nasty conversation between you and another human and then found that you just so happened to be speaking to that someone’s fiancé and that you were being an all around decent person that they would want to show you a little bit of kindness.”

You feel your face heating up. Undyne had overheard you talking with Sydney? “I’m so sorry—” you begin but she cuts you off by laughing.

“Fuhuhuhuhu! Are you kidding? You were badass! You called her out on being racist to one of my best friends! Honestly, if you hadn’t have done that I would have come over to your table before the two of you walked off. Although, I was curious as to why you were holding onto her when you so obviously were super pissed at her. Now I know!”

You feel the corner of your mouth twitch up, but you’re sure that you’re still blushing in embarrassment, “Still, you didn’t have to pay for my bill. I don’t know what all they ordered but it couldn’t have been all that cheap… Let me pay you back.”

“How about instead of you paying me back you come with us to a different bar?” Undyne asks.

“YES! JO! WE ARE GOING TO GRILLBY’S NOW AND YOU SHOULD JOIN US!” Papyrus joins in.

“We would l-love it if you c-came with us,” Alphys interjects before you could say anything, “M-maybe we could be f-friends…?” From the way her voice trails off and how quiet she says ‘friends’ you just know that she’s blushing. Er, assuming that monsters blush?

You’re silent for a moment, fidgeting with your cane. These people have so far been so much nicer than any of your other so-called “friends” ever have been. Even before the barrier fell and monsters emerged as new members of society you had never been around any people that you truly felt comfortable around. You’re realizing that these three monsters are not only super sweet but super interesting as well. Alphys is anxious but Papyrus had mentioned that she’s a doctor, which means that she is no doubt incredibly intelligent. Papyrus himself has proven to be not only innocent but also really genuinely a nice, albeit intense, individual. And Undyne… she had only heard part of your conversation with Sydney and stepped in and paid your tab so you wouldn’t have to foot the bill for all of those racist assholes. Plus she’s also intense and pretty fun from what you can tell. And now they’re all inviting you out to another bar with them to hopefully establish a friendship and to make your night go from awful to amazing?

They’re all still waiting for an answer, you notice, and you take a deep breath, “I would love to, honestly, but tonight I think I just want to go home and relax for a bit, you know?” The three of them are silent, and you feel your face heating up. Oh, gosh, they’re probably pissed off at you. You just offended them, great job Joanna. Shit, you think, and immediately say, “But! Instead, since I’m, um, being lame, or whatever, why don’t we exchange phone numbers? Maybe some other time we can… hang out… I’m sorry, I just really want to go home and… yeah…”

“DO NOT WORRY, DEAR HUMAN!” Papyrus shouts, “WE CAN SHARE PHONE NUMBERS AND WE CAN MEET UP AGAIN!”

“S-sorry, it’s easy t-to forget that h-h-humans socially m-move at d-different speeds than m-monsters,” Alphys stutters.

“What’s your number, nerd?” Undyne asks, and you tell her.

“I HAVE ADDED YOU TO MY PHONE! LET ME TEXT YOU SO YOU CAN HAVE MY NUMBER AS WELL!” Papyrus sounds so excited about this, but Undyne cuts him off.

“Wait! Dude, we can’t text if you can’t see the screen,” Undyne pouts.

“Oh,” you chuckle a little, “My phone reads things to me, actually, so I can text as much as the next person. Just text me with your names so I can add them to my contact list.”

“It w-was nice m-m-meeting you, J-Jo,” Alphys says sweetly, “Do you w-want help calling a c-c-cab?”

“I hate to ask after what your fiancé did, but if you wouldn’t mind,” you say sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it, gosh you’re such a NERD!” Undyne sounds vaguely uncomfortable but she offers you her arm and you take it graciously, allowing her to lead you with the three of them outside of the bar. She whistles incredibly loudly and you hear a cab pull up to the curb in front of you.

“ALLOW ME,” Papyrus says and you’re confused until you hear him open the cab door.

“Thank you, all of you, really,” you say, sliding into the cab. Before you shut it you remind them to text you and that it was a pleasure meeting the three of them and that you hope that you can meet up soon to get to know each other a little better.

Once the door is shut and you’ve told the driver your address you finally lean back and think about the evening, feeling a heavy weight settle over you. Sydney really is such a bitch, you think, when your fingers run along the rims of your glasses. You smile when your phone says, “Three new messages, unknown senders,” and you think about the three interesting monsters you met because of the shitty situation you went through with Sydney. You don’t remember the last time you met someone you actually wouldn’t mind hanging out with. There’s Burgerpants, the grocery store employee who helps you when you shop, but you aren’t really sure that counts.

Roughly ten minutes later you’re walking into your apartment, deciding to turn in for the night. You find yourself thinking of the three monsters once more, having already added their numbers to your contact list, and hope that somehow your paths will cross once again.

In retrospect you really weren’t expecting it to be the very next day.

 


	2. Don't Cry Over Spilt Tea

You’re trying to decide what genre to listen to while you go about your day when you hear the distinct sound of something crashing in the apartment directly above you. You groan; no one has lived above you in months and you were beginning to be hopeful that no one would end up moving in at all. There’s the scraping sound of heavy furniture being moved about and you finally opt for The Neighbourhood, turning it up a little higher than usual to hopefully help drown out the sounds of your upstairs neighbors moving in. While you really don’t mind having neighbors upstairs, downstairs, or just next door, you really don’t know what to expect in regards to sounds, smells, and all of the other things neighbors bring with them that could assault your senses at all hours of the day.

“As long as you notice I’m hoping that you’ll keep your heart open, I’ll keep mine open too,” you sing along as you make yourself a cup of tea. You’re trying not to think about work, instead choosing to focus on the music and your tea, but as you pick up the glass and start to move to your living room there’s a loud crash upstairs and it startles you enough to drop your glass. It, of course, shatters instantly once it hits your wooden floors, shards of glass no doubt going everywhere while the hot tea splatters onto your toes and all over the floor.

“Shit!” you curse, trying to determine how you’re going to move to your pantry to grab the broom without stepping on any shards of glass. “Would it kill you assholes to be a little fucking quieter?” you groan, cautiously taking a step backward and sliding your foot along the ground so as not to step on anything. You end up maneuvering backwards fairly well, and right as you reach your pantry you hear someone knocking on your door.

“Just a second!” you call out, taking note of how far away from the entrance to the kitchen the glass should be as you make your way to your front door. You pull out your phone and pause your music as you open the door a crack, “Uh… yeah?”

“hey, we, uh, heard something break down here… everything alright?” a man asks. From where his voice is coming from he sounds like he’s about your height or a little shorter and his voice is a little on the deep side. It has a pleasant sound to it.

“Fine, yeah, thanks…” you say and your voice trails off. You’re both silent for a beat, him most likely taking stock of your lack of eyesight, before he finally clears his throat and you hear a weird scratching noise.

“do you maybe need help cleaning it up?”

”Um…”

“you didn’t sound that happy with the situation and since you most likely did it ‘cause my brother and my friend are being really loud moving us in upstairs it’s the least I could do.”

You feel your face heating up. Shit, he must’ve heard you yell. “Fuck, I’m sorry. It’s not that big of a deal, I was just startled, but I shouldn’t have yelled up at you.” Shit, now you’re cussing to a random stranger. Er, well, new neighbor as it seems to be. You’ve really gotta work on that.

“don’t worry ‘bout it,” he chuckles, “they don’t really need me up there anyway, plus it’s nice to meet new people.”

“Alright, then, it’s in the kitchen,” you say, stepping back and opening the door fully to allow him into the place. You follow him in, leaving the door open just in case he’s planning on doing anything sketchy, and you hear that weird scratching sound coming from him again.

“oh man, you must’ve just made this.”

“Yeah…” you stick your arm out and connect your fingers with the wall as you walk to the entrance of the kitchen, “It’s no big deal, really, it’s just the cleaning up that can be a bit… difficult.”

The man’s silent for a moment and you find yourself wondering why exactly you allowed a stranger into your apartment. Finally you hear the telltale sounds of the man cleaning up the broken mug and the tea that is no doubt all over your floor.

“sans.”

“I’m sorry?”

“my name’s sans.”

“Oh, uh, I’m Jo.”

“it’s nice to meet you jo. sorry ‘bout all the racket upstairs.”

“It’s fine, really,” you say, hoping to put him at ease. A silence descends upon the two of you, only being broken by the sound of glass being dumped into your trashcan. You try to think of something else to say to Sans but before you come up with anything he speaks again, “you live here alone?”

“Yeah,” you say, then mentally kick yourself. Not only did you invite a stranger into your apartment but you also just admitted that you live alone.

“must get pretty bonely.”

You cock your head to the side, “Bonely…?”

“don’t worry about it, inside joke,” Sans chuckles, “but anyway I should probably, uh, get outta your hair. sorry again.”

“No, it’s okay,” you smile, “Thanks for helping clean it up.”

“it’s the least I could do,” you hear him begin shuffling towards your front door and you follow him, wrapping your arms around yourself. You feel kind of bad about the whole situation, but it was pretty sweet of him to come all the way down to your apartment to help you clean up your broken mug. Plus he wasn’t being a dick about the fact you cussed and yelled about the crashing sounds of him and his brother moving in, “we’ll, uh, make sure not to be too loud again. would hate to cause you to break anything else,” he chuckles, and you find yourself smiling again. Sans is silent for another moment before he says, “it was nice meeting you, jo.”

“And you as well, Sans,” you respond, “See you around. Well, hear you around, as it is.”

He chuckles, “looking forward to it.”

You feel your face heat up at his words, hearing him walk away as you shut and lock your door.

For a few moments you just stand there, thinking over the whole exchange, before you smile and head back to your kitchen. You’re a bit worried that Sans might have missed a shard or two and that you might cut your foot so you do your best to avoid the area that the mug was dropped. You reach into your fridge without incident and grab a water bottle, not even bothering with making anymore tea, and head to your living room. As you sit on your couch you start your music up again, changing it to “Stand Tall” by Childish Gambino. You reach out and feel along your coffee table until your hand connects with _The Great Gatsby_. Tea would have been nice, you decide as you flip the book open and run your fingers along the words, but the fact that you met such a kind man because you dropped your mug was worth drinking water instead. Plus water is easier and better for you anyway.

You hear someone above you shout something but you can’t quite grasp what words are said, only that moments later—literally, like, seconds later—there’s another knock on your door. The knocking is intense, like someone either super excited or angry is on the other side of it, so you’re a bit hesitant to open the door. You set your book down on the couch and slowly make your way to the door where you open it even slower. “Hello?” you ask in confusion.

“HUMAN JO!”

You jump at the loud noise but smile widely, recognizing the voice, “Papyrus? What are you doing here?”

“I LIVE ABOVE YOU NOW! WE’RE NEIGHBORS!” you hear what sounds like Papyrus jumping up and down and behind that you hear that weird scratching noise from when Sans was in your doorway before. “OH!” Papyrus starts, drawing your attention back to him, “I AM SO SORRY THAT WE STARTLED YOU AND CAUSED YOU TO DROP YOUR TEA! SANS TOLD ME WHAT HAPPENED AND I FELT BAD SINCE I’M THE ONE WHO DROPPED THE COUCH IN THE FIRST PLACE.”

“You dropped a couch?”

“he decided to hold it on his shoulder but when he went to put it down he lost his grip and it fell,” you hear Sans say, “he’s usually better at that sort of thing but he was telling me this awesome story about the human he met last night. turns out it was you.”

“WHEN HE GOT BACK UPSTAIRS AND HE TOLD ME THAT HE HELPED A CUTE BLIND HUMAN CLEAN UP HER DROPPED DRINK I RUSHED RIGHT DOWN HOPING IT WAS YOU! AND IT WAS!”

You feel your face heat up in response to the word cute and you hear Sans chuckle nervously, “yeah bro, thanks for that.”

“YOU ARE VERY WELCOME, THOUGH I AM NOT SURE WHAT FOR.”

Sans groans, “never mind, don’t worry about it.”

You smile at the exchange, “I’m glad you guys are my new neighbors,” you say, electing to ignore the word ‘cute’ since it seemed like Sans was a little embarrassed by it.

“I AM TOO!” Papyrus shouts, “OH! UNDYNE IS UPSTAIRS STILL HELPING US MOVE IN! WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME UPSTAIRS WITH US AND SEE THE APARTMENT?”

“bro…”

“I would love to, Papyrus, but I’m not so sure how much I’ll be seeing,” you tease him.

“OH NO! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS OFFENDED YOU!”

He sounds so distraught that you hold up your hands in an attempt to placate him, “No, it’s okay, you didn’t offend me. I was just joking.”

“ARE YOU SURE?”

“Positive,” you smile again, “Let me just…” you reach over to the little table next to your door and grab your keys, wallet, and cane, which you unfold and straighten out. “Okay, let’s go.”

You step out into the hallway and lock your door behind you, sliding your keys and wallet into your pocket once you’ve done so.

“you can hold onto my arm if you need to,” Sans offers. You smile and reach your hand out, connecting with his arm.

“Oh! That explains the bonely comment you made,” you say when you realize that Sans is pretty boney under what feels like a pretty thick jacket. Being Papyrus’ brother, it only makes sense that he’s a skeleton monster as well.

“heh, yeah,” Sans chuckles.

The three of you walk to the stairs at the end of the hall. Er, you and Sans walk: Papyrus sprints and bounds up them. You hear a door slam open farther down the hall and Papyrus yells, “UNDYNE! OUR HUMAN FRIEND JO IS ON HER WAY UP HERE!”

“WHAT? That’s awesome! I like that nerd!” you hear Undyne exclaim, her voice loud enough to travel down the hall to where you and Sans still are, and even with her enthusiasm and yelling she isn’t nearly as loud and enthusiastic as Papyrus. You smile at the fact that Undyne said she likes you.

You and Sans make your way to their apartment, but you’re very glad you have your cane: Sans is walking directly next to you and doesn’t seem to be noticing some things that would trip you up, like the ripped carpet seam that your cane just got caught on. You know he isn’t doing it on purpose, it’s just that people typically don’t know how to be a guide to a blind person.

“well, here it is,” Sans says and you walk through the door to their apartment.

“Hey, Jo!” Undyne yells, and moments later you jump a bit because you feel arms wrap around you. The arms immediately peel away and Undyne sounds sheepish when she says, “Sorry, I probably should’ve warned you about that first…”

“It’s okay, dude,” you smile, “Just wasn’t expecting it. Try again?” You hold your arms out and Undyne gives you a proper hug. You giggle afterwards, when it sounds like she’s jumping up and down in excitement. You suppose that being best friends with Papyrus means some of his quirks have rubbed off on her.

“WELCOME TO OUR NEW APARTMENT, JO!” Papyrus announces somewhere farther into the apartment, “WE ARE STILL UNPACKING BUT IT IS VERY NICE!”

“Oh yeah, it looks great,” you say with a smile and you hear Sans’ stifled laughter next to you.

“You can’t see anything, you weirdo,” Undyne says. She has a way of making words like ‘nerd’ and ‘weirdo’ sound incredibly affectionate.

“Oh, right,” you say dryly, “Hey, Sans, do you think you could lead me to that couch that Papyrus dropped?”

“sure.”

You grab a hold of Sans’ arm again and he takes you to the couch, which ends up being literally five steps away from where you were standing. You take a seat, folding your cane up while you do so, and feel Sans sit on the other end of the couch. Based on the sounds of moving and the fact that the couch cushion directly next to you gets jostled you assume that Sans is laying down. That’s confirmed when Papyrus shouts, “SANS YOU LAZYBONES! WE STILL HAVE MORE THINGS LEFT TO UNPACK AND FINISH MOVING IN!”

“yeah, you’re doin’ great, bro, but someone needs to be a good host and hang out with jo, right?”

“…YOU HAVE A GOOD POINT.”

“besides, you’re the best at doin’ all that anyway.”

“AN EVEN BETTER POINT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM THE BEST AT UNPACKING AND MOVING IN! DO NOT FRET, HUMAN, FOR I WILL FINISH WITH ALL OF THIS IN RECORD TIME AND GIVE YOU A PROPER TOUR OF THE APARTMENT ONCE I AM FINISHED.”

You smile, “I would love that, Papyrus.”

At that you hear his laughter (“NYEH HEH HEH!) fade a bit as he moves on further into the apartment. A loud ringtone goes off and you hear Undyne say, “Alphys is calling, I’m going to go pick her up. I’ll be back with her soon.” Within moments after Undyne leaves you hear the sounds of boxes being opened and things being moved around, and you find that your smile has not faded. You really like these people. They’re so kind and welcoming and aren’t treating you any different because of your lack of eyesight or because you’re a human. Papyrus is one of the sweetest people you’ve ever met, you think as you hear him humming _Girls Just Want to Have Fun_ while he unpacks a box. He’s loud, sure, but he’s just so enthusiastic. And happy. Not very many people are just happy to be happy, and you find that a very endearing trait that he has.

“what are you thinking about?”

You flinch at Sans’ voice, not expecting it right then, but quickly smile in his direction, “I’m just pretty happy to have met all of you.”

Sans is quiet for a moment and you find yourself wondering what he looks like, specifically his facial features. Does he even have facial features? He and Papyrus can both speak even though they don’t have lips—or vocal cords?—so there had to be some way they were able to do that, right? So… facial features. Probably.

Finally Sans chuckles softly, “didn’t know people like you existed, to be honest.”

You cock your head to the side a little, your brow furrowing, “What do you mean?”

“it’s just that,” Sans stops talking for a second and you hear him sit up and scoot closer to you, “you’re hanging out with us. with monsters. monsters you only just met. and you’re saying how happy you are to have met us? it’s just… you’re something else.”

A frown tugs at the corners of your mouth as you think of the best way to respond to him. “Well,” you begin, “You’re all just so nice. I don’t care about the fact that you’re monsters. I mean, why would I? Monsters are all just people anyway. Plus I mean, last night I had a pretty shitty time with some people who I thought were my friends but turned out to be pretty shitty human beings and then I met Alphys, Undyne, and Papyrus and they were just so sweet. They turned my night around just by talking with me for a few minutes. And then earlier when I dropped my tea, you just came right on down and helped me clean it up. Anyone else would have either ignored the sound or would have come down and given me a piece of their mind since I yelled up at you guys afterwards. You could all be monsters or humans or something else entirely and I would still enjoy your company. ”

Sans was quiet again for a beat before very quietly whispering, “and you’re sure that me being a skeleton doesn’t bother you?”

You flash him a beaming smile, “Not in the slightest.”

Sans breathes out and you hear him shifting around again until suddenly you’re wrapped in a tight embrace, his arms much more comfortable around you than you would have imagined. When he pulls away he clears his throat, “uh, thanks.”

You hear that weird scratching sound again and you can’t help but ask, “What’s that sound?”

“oh, heh, that’s just me scratching my head. sorry if it’s annoying…”

You shake your head, “No, no, it’s not that it’s annoying, it’s just that I couldn’t place it. I’ve never heard, um, bone scratching bone before.”

“that would make sense,” Sans chuckles, “so hey, uh, just curious here, feel free to not answer, but you’re… blind…”

“Oh wow, you’re right! Thank you so much, Captain Obvious, I’ve been trying to figure this out for years,” you tease, leaning back into the couch cushions. Sans laughs, sounding a little embarrassed, so you decide to take it easy on him, “Yeah, I’m blind. What are you curious about?”

“is it true that the rest of your senses heighten to make up for one of them being missing? because i was doing a little bit of research and nothing was real straightforward about that.”

You think about that for a second, “I mean, there’s some truth to that, yeah. It’s nothing like the movies make it out to be, though. They’re just a little bit more sensitive than most people’s.”

“and your sight, it’s completely gone?”

“Yeah, a hundred percent,” you nod.

“were you born blind?”

“No,” you answer softly, tilting your head down, “No, I could see until I was seven.” God, it’s been fifteen years and you still do not like to think about that day. You force yourself not to think about what led up to the world being permanently black and fidget with the hem of your shirt to give yourself something to do.

“hey, sorry for bringing it up, shouldn’t have asked,” Sans says and places his hand on your shoulder, “you okay?”

You take a deep breath, shoving your sour mood aside, and plaster a smile to your face, “All good. It’s cool, by the way, if you ask me stuff. I’ll try not be weird about the answers, too.”

Sans is quiet again and you really want to know what he’s thinking and what he looks like and right as you go to open your mouth to ask you hear Papyrus come back into the room. “JO WE ARE FRIENDS BUT WE HAVEN’T EATEN FRIENDSHIP PASTA YET!” Papyrus sounds both distraught and excited at the same time and you can’t help but giggle, even if you are a tad confused about the whole friendship pasta thing. “WILL YOU STAY FOR DINNER?”

“I would love to, Papyrus, but it’s okay, I’d hate to impose. You don’t have to go to all the trouble—”

“NONSENSE! WE ARE FRIENDS AND FRIENDS COOK PASTA FOR EACH OTHER. UNDYNE AND ALPHYS WILL BE HERE FOR DINNER TONIGHT, TOO! PLUS… WE WOULD ALL LIKE TO GET TO KNOW YOU A LITTLE BETTER ANYWAY, RIGHT SANS?”

“yeah, ‘course we would. it’s no trouble, really,” Sans says, and you can tell he’s being sincere.

“Well, if you’re both sure… then yes, I’d love to stay for, um, friendship pasta, you said?”

As soon as you say that Papyrus’ arms are around you and lifting you off of the couch. You freak out for a split second before you just accept this as normal, and you feel Papyrus spin around with you a bit, talking a mile a minute about how excited he is to have you as a friend and how he can’t wait for you to taste pasta made by “THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NYEH HEH HEH”, and you find yourself smiling so wide your cheeks start to hurt but, oh, you don’t care. You really like these people, they’re just so wonderful you almost can’t believe you met them and that they’re so accepting of you.

When Papyrus finally puts you down, proclaiming that he needs to start on dinner, you hear Sans get off the couch and stand next to you. “if ya really don’t want to you don’t have to. don’t want you to feel pressured by us.”

You turn towards him, hoping your expression conveys the sincerity of what you’re about to say, “Sans, I really would love to stay. I hardly know any of you and yet I feel like… like we’re meant to be friends? I don’t know how to explain it, but… Look, I’ve had several people who I considered friends but turned out to be more of acquaintances at the very most, and already I feel like you all are so much more than that. I don’t know, I just really like all of you.”

“you really mean all of that,” Sans states with mild disbelief, and you roll your eyes.

“Bonehead, if this is about the fact that all of you are monsters, I’ve already told you I don’t care about that. I mean come on, just look at all the fucks I give! I sure as hell can’t.”

Sans snorts and you feel pretty pleased with yourself for getting that response. “you’re somethin’ else, you know that?”

You grin, “Pretty sure you already said that.”

“good, ‘cause it’s true,” he says quietly.

“Come on,” you reach out towards him and your hand—thankfully—connects with his shoulder and not, like, his chest or something, “Let’s go hang out with Papyrus in the kitchen. I’m dying to hear more about friendship pasta.”

As you and Sans walk to the kitchen, you smile, feeling like this is the start of something wonderful.


	3. Pasta, Puns, and Pasta Puns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter fought me the entire time, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get it out. It's not exactly how I want it to be but I have to move on at some point, right? So here's a chapter, guys, hope you like it!

You and Sans spend the next thirty minutes or so listening to Papyrus talk about how important pasta is while he cooks it and all the while you’re smiling and laughing and just having a really good time. Papyrus ends up asking you a question about being blind and after you explain that the main sense you use is your hearing Sans speaks up and says, “so what your saying is that if we were both completely quiet you could end up walking right _pastas_?”

“SANS NO!” Papyrus groans and you try not to giggle at his irritation.

“sorry, bro; been meanin’ to use that one.”

“I noticed several openings but I _pasta-p_ the opportunity,” you smirk and can’t help but let out a peel of laughter when Papyrus shouts at you.

“NO, NOT YOU TOO!”

“nice, good one,” Sans chuckles.

You hear the front door open and you turn your head towards the noise, “Could that _pastably_ be Undyne and Alphys?”

Papyrus groans while Sans laughs and you hear Undyne say, “Alphys, you were right!”

“O-oh, good, I knew it w-would happen,” you hear her say, the sound of her—it has to be a tail—dragging behind her as she walks into the kitchen, “Hey, Jo, it’s g-good to s-see you again.”

“Yeah, you too, Alphys,” you smile, and you hear Papyrus groan again.

“IT’S LIKE THERE ARE TWO OF SANS NOW.”

“you make that sound like it’s a bad thing, bro,” Sans says and you hear a smile in his voice.

“IT IS WHEN ALL EITHER OF YOU ARE DOING IS MAKING PUNS!” Papyrus exclaims in frustration and both you and Sans start laughing again.

“See, babe?” Undyne chortles.

“Y-yeah,” Alphys giggles, “It happened a l-lot faster than I th-thought.”

“what are you two talking about?” Sans asks, his voice dripping with suspicion. This only succeeds in making Undyne and Alphys laugh conspiratorially.

You’re a tad confused about the whole exchange but refrain from commenting, instead saying, “The spaghetti smells good, Papyrus. Is it almost done?”

“IT IS NEARLY DONE, HUMAN! BUT THE MORE YOU AND SANS MAKE PUNS ABOUT MY FOOD THE SLOWER I MAKE IT!”

You nod, “Sure, sure, makes sense. So what you’re saying is, no more puns about pasta.”

“YES, NO MORE!” Papyrus wholeheartedly agrees and you snicker.

“It’s okay, Paps,” you say, reaching out and connecting your hand with Sans’ arm, “We’ve got a skele _ton_ different types of puns we can use instead, right dude?”

Papyrus literally shrieks in despair while Sans begins laughing so hard you can feel the vibrations in the counter that you’re both leaning against. Gosh, you think, you haven’t felt this relaxed around people in what felt like years. You had thought that your father had ruined that relaxed, safe feeling of being around other people until you went to college, but after you graduated your small group of friends had all gone their separate ways. Since then, you’d gotten your job and met, ugh, Sydney and the others, and at first it honestly wasn’t too bad: they were very accommodating to your disability and still talked to you like you were their equal. Looking back at it, you aren’t too sure how your relationship with your work “friends” got to where it is now.

“Jo, a-are you okay?” Alphys asks you, and you realize that your smile had turned into a frown when you took your short trip down memory lane.

You nod, “I’m good, just thinking.”

“you should probably stop doing that,” Sans deadpans.

You snicker, “Yeah, yeah.”

“THE PASTA IS READY!” Papyrus announces, and you feel Alphys’ clawed hand on your arm.

“I c-can take you t-to the t-t-table,” she says sweetly, and you beam at her.

“Thanks, Alphys.”

She guides you to the table and you take a seat quickly. You hear her take a seat on the left and what sounds like Sans to your right. Undyne, of course, ends up sitting next to her fiancé and when Papyrus brings the pasta to the table he sits on the other side of Sans. You smile, realizing that Alphys placed you at the head of the table.

“I WILL MAKE EVERYONE’S PLATE!”

Everyone makes various noises of acknowledgement to Papyrus’ statement and you lean back in your chair, a smile on your face, “Thank you, Papyrus.”

“I HOPE YOU LIKE THE FRIENDSHIP PASTA!” he yells, and you hear a plate thump down in front of you, “THE FORK IS ON THE RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR PLATE.”

“Awesome, thanks,” you say, sliding your hand to the right. As your fingers wrap around the utensil, you hear Sans snickering.

“JUST A LITTLE BIT, BROTHER, PLEASE?” Papyrus pleads, sounding a little bit apprehensive.

“not hungry,” Sans says, “i’ll stick with ketchup.”

“BUT—”

“it’s cool, bro,” Sans cuts him off before anything more can be said, and while you’re confused by the exchange (especially the ketchup comment) you refrain from speaking.

“Thank y-you,” Alphys mumbles.

Undyne clears her throat, “Looks good, Paps. Thanks for cooking tonight.”

Papyrus is quiet for a moment, which you find a little shocking, but eventually he laughs and says, “YOU ARE VERY WELCOME! I ENJOY COOKING FOR EVERYONE!”

You hear everyone else start digging in so you follow suit, slowly and deliberately spinning your fork around so you can wrap some spaghetti noodles around it. When you finally bring it up to your mouth and take a bite, your eyes widen and you smile around your chewing.

“DO… DO YOU LIKE IT?” Papyrus asks nervously, and you know he has to be speaking to you.

“It’s delicious, Papyrus; you’re a really good cook!” you tell him.

“NYEH HEH HEH, THANK YOU HUMAN! THEY DO CALL ME MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS!”

“I can see why,” you grin.

Undyne groans, and you’re quick to say, “No pun intended,” even though it was definitely intended.

After a few more bites you clear your throat, “Maybe… maybe next time I can cook for you guys?” You don’t mean for it to come out as a question, but you find that you’re a little nervous for how they might react to that statement. You had once offered to cook for Sydney but she had laughed at you, claiming that since you’re blind she didn’t think that you would be that good of a cook. You, of course, hadn’t wanted to argue with her and subsequently kept your mouth shut, but you did harbor a grudge toward her for it. That ended up being the start of your seemingly infinite irritation with her, now that you really think about it.

“THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!” Papyrus squeals.

“Well,” Alphys begins, “T-tomorrow we’re all g-going to be at T-t-toriel’s place, you c-could make a d-dish for that if… y-you want to j-join us… that is…”

“Oh!” you smile, leaning back in your chair, “That sounds pretty awesome. I mean, I’ll have to go to the grocery store first… what time will it be tomorrow?”

“sometime ‘round three’s when we’ll head over, you can ride with us if ya want,” Sans answers you, “plus we’ve gotta swing by the store first, too. right, paps?”

“RIGHT!” Papyrus says, “WE WOULD LOVE IT IF YOU CAME WITH US, JO!”

“Sounds like a plan,” you nod and resume eating. Pretty soon you’re finished with your spaghetti and the sounds of plates being stacked soon greet your ears. Undyne and Papyrus have a race to see who can clean and put away the most dishes, and you find yourself giggling at their enthusiasm. Man, if only you could channel some of that when it came time for you to do your dishes the time would pass by so much quicker. As it is, you tend to clean up after everything you do in your apartment almost immediately upon completion of whatever it was you were doing in the first place to help make sure everything remains neat and orderly. Neat and orderly are the two biggest things for you when it comes to keeping your home easy to navigate, but they don’t come easily when all you want to do is relax.

After dinner is cleaned up, Undyne and Alphys say their goodbyes, promising to see the rest of you tomorrow, and you know that you should probably be leaving too. Even though you know you’ll be meeting up with everyone again tomorrow you find that you really don’t want to go back to your apartment just yet. You really like being around your new monster friends and it makes being alone in your apartment seem a lot lonelier than usual. It’s because of that that you end up staying a little longer, you and Sans cracking jokes much to Papyrus’ chagrin.

Finally you announce that you should probably head back down to your place to get some sleep, a smile still on your face from laughing with Sans.

“i’ll walk you down,” Sans says, handing you your things.

As the two of you make your way to the door you unfold your cane, “Bye, Papyrus! See you in the morning so we can go to the store!”

“GOODBYE, HUMAN! SLEEP WELL!”

You smile in his direction, “You too, Paps.”

In the hallway, you and Sans are quiet as you walk down the stairs to your floor. You open your mouth to speak, but, not knowing what to say, you slowly shut your mouth again. You want to convey just how happy you are to have met him and the others and how thankful you are that they have invited you to hang out with them again tomorrow, but you really aren’t sure how to. Pretty soon you’re standing in front of your apartment and Sans clears his throat.

“alright, well…” Sans’ voice trails off as you unlock your door. You pull it open and linger in the doorway, waiting for him to finish his thought. When he doesn’t, you grin at him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

Sans chuckles and you hear him scratching his skull, “yeah, see ya then. night, Jo.”

“Goodnight, Sans.”

You slip into your apartment, locking the door behind you, and within ten minutes you’re lying in bed, a smile still on your face. Tomorrow can’t come fast enough.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

The next morning you jolt awake, your heart racing, when you hear someone pounding on your front door. The repeated noise is loud enough that it echoes through your apartment and reaches you in your bedroom, where you’re still curled under your comforter in fear.

“HUMAN! WE’RE HERE EARLY!”

Even though you’re not ready for the day to begin and the sound of him banging on the door is enough to give you a mini heart attack, you can’t help the smile that appears on your face once you recognize that Papyrus is the one at your door. You crawl out of bed and make your way into your living room, calling out, “Just a second!” as you pad over to the door. Once you’re two steps away from it you reach your hand out and unlock it, swinging it open a second later. “Hey, Pa—”

Before you can finish that sentence you’re lifted off of the floor into a nearly bone crushing hug. Papyrus laughs and you hear Sans say, “bro, you’re crushing the human.”

“JO, YOUR DAY CLOTHES LOOK LIKE NIGHT CLOTHES! THAT’S INTERESTING!” he yells once he puts you down, and you laugh even though you’re still trying to catch your breath from his enthusiastic greeting.

“You guys are early, I only just woke up.”

“you mean i could’ve slept longer?” Sans pouts.

“SANS, YOU LAZYBONES; YOU’RE ALWAYS SLEEPING!”

You giggle, “You guys can feel free to come in and have a seat, I’ll be just a few minutes.” With that you head back into your room, holding your hand out so your fingers can slide against the wall. You close the door to your bedroom behind you and make your way to your closet, where you quickly pull out a pair of leggings, a t-shirt, and a big sweatshirt since it’s supposed to be cold outside. After you’re dressed you slip on a pair of comfy boots that go up to the middle of your calf and then hurriedly pull your hair up into a loose bun. You don’t bother with any makeup since you don’t want the guys to have to wait too much longer.

When you make your way back into your living room Papyrus says, “SANS! WAKE UP! THE HUMAN HAS CHANGED INTO HER DAY CLOTHES!”

“’m up, bro,” Sans mumbles.

“Sorry it took so long, guys,” you say, grabbing your cane and purse off of the table by your front door. You slip your purse onto your shoulder while you unfold your cane, “Are we ready to go?”

“YES! LET US GO TO THE GROCERY STORE!” Papyrus exclaims, rushing past you and out your door. From the sounds of it, it seems like he’s jumping up and down in the hallway.

“just a heads up,” Sans begins as the two of you follow Papyrus into the hallway, “paps is driving.”

You raise an eyebrow as you shut the door behind the two of you.

“COME ON!” Papyrus is much more of a morning person than you are, you realize as he scoops you up and runs off down the hallway with you. You can’t remember if you locked the door to your apartment or not, but you shrug it off knowing that you’ve never forgotten to do it before.

“Paps, I can walk,” you laugh, your face heating up as he rushes down the stairs to the first floor.

“NONSENSE! YOU AND SANS WERE TAKING TOO LONG! WHAT IF THERE ARE LINES AT THE STORE? WHAT IF THERE’S TRAFFIC?!” Papyrus questions, and you hear Sans chuckle on the other side of him.

“he does this sometimes,” he says, sounding pretty content with the situation.

“Did you pick up Sans, too , Papyrus?” you ask, your eyebrows raised.

“IT’S FASTER THIS WAY!”

Pretty soon—after no more than one minute of being jostled around in Papyrus’ grip—you’re all outside. The chill hits you instantly and you’re glad you’re wearing your sweatshirt.

When Papyrus sets you both down you breathe a sigh of relief to be on solid ground. A gust of wind causes you to shiver and Sans makes a comment that the wind is “chilling you to the bone”, to which you roll your eyes, “It’s too early for puns, Sans, my brain isn’t working enough to make them yet.”

“blasphemy,” Sans gasps, and the two of you start laughing.

“OKAY, NO PUNS IN MY CAR! IT’S TIME TO GO TO THE STORE!” Papyrus announces, and you hear the telltale sound of a car unlocking. After a few seconds you hear him clear his throat, “SANS, GET THE DOOR FOR JO,” he says, his voice taking on a tone that seems almost like stage whispering.

“oh, uh, sure,” Sans responds, grabbing your shoulder and turning you a little bit while he opens the door. Within a few moments you’re seated in the back of the car, Papyrus in the driver’s seat and Sans in the passenger’s seat, and you hear Sans snickering, “ya might wanna hold on, kiddo.”

“What are you—?”

You’re cut off by the car lurching forward at a speed that is definitely _not_ intended for getting out of a parking lot. The force of the movement causes your head to slam back against the headrest and you find yourself clutching the seat of the car for dear life, and you just know you’re making a really stupid facial expression but honestly you’re fucking terrified that you’re about to die in the back of Papyrus’ car. Your heart is beating so fast that you wouldn’t be surprised if it gave out entirely.

You hear Sans laughing but you’re too frightened to respond to it: you simply hold onto the seat so hard that your knuckles feel like they’re going to break.

After only three minutes but what feels like three hours the car is stopped and Papyrus announces, “WE’VE ARRIVED!”

“i think you broke the human, bro,” Sans chuckles, no doubt noticing that you’re still holding onto the seat as if your life depends on it.

“N-no, I’m fine,” you say, still not moving, “Just, uh, give me a minute…”

“WE HAVE NO TIME! HUMAN, WE MUST SHOP IN RECORD TIME!” Papyrus shouts, and a few seconds later your door is opening and you’re being scooped out by Papyrus. “COME, HUMAN,” he says, setting you down on your feet and guiding your hand to your cane in the same moment, “WE MUST GET IN THERE!” And with that your terror is all but forgotten and you’re being led into the store by Papyrus, Sans trailing behind you. While Papyrus’ steps are practically bounds, Sans merely shuffles, his hands no doubt in his pockets from the extremely casual way he acts.

“Buddy!” a familiar voice shouts as soon as you’ve entered the grocery store, and you smile a moment later when you feel a pat on your back.

“What’s up, BP?”

“Oh, you know, just getting off break. Back to the grind. The usual. What’s up with you? I see you’ve met the skelebros!”

“HELLO, BURGERPANTS!” Papyrus shouts.

“hey, bp,” Sans says, his voice a little deeper than normal, which makes you curious but you don’t comment.

“Hey, guys… but, um, anyways, Jo, I have work tomorrow. If, um, you wanted to stop by, or anything… um… or wanted to hang out when I’m on break or something, that would, uh, be pretty cool.”

You smile, “I’m getting a few things today, actually, so I shouldn’t need to come back again for at least a week.” About ten seconds of silence passes before you hear Sans’ laughter. “What’s so funny?” you ask, but Burgerpants starts to speak in place of Sans.

“Oh, um, you know what, I forgot that I actually have a super important meeting with my boss right now, I’ll see you next time you come in, have a nice day,” and while you’re in the process of saying goodbye you hear him high tailing it out of there. Sans is still laughing next to you.

“What… was that all about?” you ask him, fidgeting with your cane.

“You mean you really don’t know?” he manages to ask.

“Know what?”

That starts another round of laughter.

“What am I missing here, dude?”

“He’s crushing hard, and you thought he wanted you here for groceries.”

“C-crushing?” you question, your face hot, “Um, n-no, that’s not…” then you start to think about how he’s been acting lately and you gasp, “Oh no! Awe, that poor guy! I didn’t even notice! I feel bad, but, like… Oh gosh, how am I supposed to shop here anymore? This is going to be so awkward, why couldn’t you have just _left me in the dark_ on that?” You reach out and, after finding his arm, you smack it.

“Hey, you just broke poor Burgerpants’ heart and now you’re _hitting_ on me? That’s cold.”

Your face is hot again but before you can manage to say anything Papyrus is yelling, “NO MORE PUNS! WE NEED TO SHOP, AND IF WE MUST SHOP IN SILENCE TO KEEP YOU TWO FROM MAKING PUNS, THEN SO BE IT!”

“bro,” Sans says, shuffling away from the two of you and then shuffling back after a few seconds, “romaine calm.”

Papyrus smacks what you assume is romaine lettuce out of Sans’ hand and stomps away, leaving you and Sans laughing together.

“lettuce ketchup to him,” Sans says, placing your hand on his arm, and the two of you giggle as you follow Papyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like it, leave a comment! Also, you can follow me on my tumblr, miss-markers.tumblr.com if you'd like. That would be pretty cool. Anyway! I'm working on the next chapter as quickly as possible but I cannot promise it will be out soon. Hopefully it won't take as loon as this chapter did though. Thanks for reading!!


End file.
